For Sale!

After living in Jonesborough our entire married life ( four and a half years and counting), K and I have decided to put our house up for sale and move back to our hometown, Erwin. Jonesborough is a great place to live, and we have a nice neighborhood. But I work in Erwin three days a week, and we go to church there. Plus we are often over on the weekend for some family function or the other.

Now that we've actully got the "For Sale" sign in the yard, I'm really excited about moving back to Erwin. The irony of this situation is that I can remember a time when I couldn't wait to get out!

Anyway, I know the housing market isn't that great right now, but I'm not gonna worry about that. The thing is, the Lord already knows who will buy our house, and he may be moving them this direction as we speak....or type. Oh, whatever.

Orlando, Part II.

My husband has had this trip to Orlando on the brain for ever. He loves riding roller coasters and couldn't wait to ride rides with Bella. I was of the opinion that it would be better to wait till they were both older, were tall enough to ride everything, and would remember it all. And although my opinion has not changed, I have to admit it was an awesome trip. And kudos to my hubby for being our travel agent!

We stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort, one of the three resorts located inside Universal Studios and Islands of adventure. The rooms were really nice, if a smidge on the small side. We could take a water taxi or walk to the park entrances or the Citywalk.

Bella rode everything she was tall enough to ride. I know we rode "The Cat in the Hat" at least thirty times. Here are a few pics:


Me and Bella on "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".
We got really wet!

Me and Abby hanging out by the Lagoon Pool.

Bella and Aunt Rachel on the "High in the Sky Seuss

Trolley Train Ride."

Hogwarts! My hubby's favorite part of the park!

It was awesome, especially if you are a Harry Potter

fan....we are!

In front of Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe.

Worwando! Part I : Gatorland!

Ok, so I know the title of this blog post sounds like a video game. One of those strategy ones where you pretend to be the wizard or the swordsman, etc, and battle the evil monsters.

Actually "Worwando" is how Bella says Orlando. Which is the real subject of this post. After returning from Hilton Head Island, we were home for seven short days before we had to pack it all up again and head for sunny Orlando. Yes, we drove. No, it was not fun. And no, we will not be venturing to Orlando again unless it is on an aeroplane.

Anyway, getting there wasn't too bad. We drove to Savannah and spent the night, then went on to Orlando on Monday morning. We had gotten free tickets to a place called "Gatorland" from our travel agent, so we decided to stop there since it was too early to check in our resort.

To be honest, we were all a little leery of a place called "Gatorland". It sounded kind of... well, redneck. And the entrance wasn't entirely reassuring:

Yes, that is a large alligator mouth made of fiberglass. It wasn't very encouraging. However, Gatorland actually turned out to be a pretty interesting place. And it was more than a little disconcerting to be walking along and look over the hand rail to see this:

The picture doesn't do it much justice, but they had some big gators. There was a small petting zoo, as well as an aviary, a walkway through the swamp, tortoises, etc. The girls had a blast. The down side was that it was in the upper nineties that day.

I love this picture. And I shouldn't have to even say it, but no, this is not a

real alligator. (Although you could have your picture made with a real

baby one for $15. We passed on that. )